This invention relates to an article of clothing useful as a novelty item. More particularly, this invention relates to a long-sleeved garment having an animal design applied to the body of the garment and a sleeve terminating in a puppet-like figure. Still more particularly, this invention relates to a garment having a hand-accommodating sleeve end formed as a puppet head.
It is common and quite popular to imprint a design on the body of a garment such as a tee-shirt, blouse, shirt, and the like wherein the design appears on the body-girdling portion of the garment. For adults, such garments are popular for displaying products of adult interest, or resorts, and the like. For children, such designs often take the form of cartoon or television characters, or individually-created characters which are acceptable and recognizable to children. Chickens, dinosaurs, bears, and other animal characters are generally popular with children. Examples of such once-patented designs are found in Des. Pat. No. 99,369 and in Des. Pat. No. 99,368. Such designs are generally applied to short-sleeved garments. However, even when long-sleeved garments are produced, the design does not usually extend to a major portion of the sleeve.
On the other hand, puppet characters have been popular with children for many years. Regularly, puppet shows are held wherein the puppeteer uses a mitten-like structure formed as a puppet character which is manipulated to words and music. Television has regularly provided puppets to children which are appealing to their sense of fancy. An example of such a garment in the patent literature is found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,308,479, while U.S. Pat. No. 3,447,165 shows an illustrative example of a mitten and character combination.
Moreover, wholly aside from the designs and puppets discussed above, garment sleeves have taken a variety of shapes and forms for various purposes over the years. Certain sleeve ends have taken on a convertible character so that the hand of the wearer can be selectively covered or exposed. Such structures are functional in nature and not associated with a puppet-like character or as a part of the aesthetic design of the garment. Representative examples of such structures are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 361,250; 1,092,047; and 1,183,792. On the contrary, however, U.S. Pat. No. 2,323,136 shows a convertible mitten which in one embodiment may be used for silhouetting characters.
None of the noted art suggests or teaches a combination of a garment with a design integrated into the sleeve, wherein the sleeve end is formed as a part of the design character or is useful as a puppet. Thus, a primary object of this invention is to provide a garment of the type described comprising a long-sleeved upper torso garment having a hand-accommodating sleeve end and an animal design applied to the torso portion of the garment.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a garment of the type described wherein the garment is in the form of a shirt, sweater, or blouse having long sleeves and a mitten-like attachment on one or both sleeves.
It is still another object of this invention to provide such a garment with an animal design arranged so that the head of animal extends down the sleeve of the garment and the body of the animal appears on the torso portion of the garment, a dinosaur, flamingo, or giraffe being representative of the types of creatures which are particularly suited for such integration with the garment because of their elongated neck structures.
It is another object of this invention to provide a garment with a sleeve terminating in a mitten-like sleeve end formed as the head of a hand-held puppet-like character, wherein the sleeve end is split transversely at a location spaced from the puppet-like sleeve end to permit a hand of the user to protrude from the slot so that the garment can be worn in a conventional manner with the hands of the wearer being free from envelopment by the garment.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a slotted garment of the type described immediately above, which is formed by pair of flaps, each having a portion attached along its perimeter to form a pouch that opens away from the cuff on the inside of the sleeve.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a slotted garment of the type described immediately above, which includes fasteners attached on the sides of the inner face of one pouch and on the outside edge of the other pouch, wherein the head of the encrypted animal forms a puppet mouth.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent from a written description of the invention which follows, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.